BETHLEHEM, Pa.--In the Women's Gold Race at the Paul Short Run junior Nicky Akande (Lawrenceville, Ga.) came in eighth overall in a field of 360 runners to lead Villanova at the Lehigh University course on Friday morning. As a team the Wildcats finished seventh out of 40 teams that competed in the Gold race.

Akande covered the 6,000-meter course in 20:33 and was one of two Villanova runners to place in the top 30 of the field. Senior Summer Cook (Thornton, Colo.) finished in 29th place with a time of 21:02 and the Wildcats had a spread of only 51 seconds between their top five runners.

The trio of junior Emily Lipari (Greenvale, N.Y.) and sophomores Stephanie Schappert (Delray Beach, Fla.) and Megan Venables (Laurel Springs, N.J.) were separated by just nine seconds at the finish line. Lipari finished in 44th place with a time of 21:15, while Schappert and Venables came in 50th (21:23) and 53rd (21:24), respectively.

Rounding out the top seven for Villanova were sophomore Courtney Chapman (Fayetteville, N.Y.) in 78th place (21:54) and senior Meghan Smith (Newark, Del.) in 126th place (22:25).

As a team the Wildcats finished with 184 points in their first scored meet of the season. Cornell won the team title with 55 points and was followed by William & Mary (102), Georgetown (106), Yale (147), Dartmouth (149) and Providence (167) ahead of Villanova in the standings. Rounding out the top 10 teams were Brown (196), New Hampshire (331) and Navy (332).

Despite heavy rain that fell last night and into the early morning hours the course was mostly dry at the time of the race, with a few muddy spots along the route slowing down the pace. The quartet of Akande, Lipari, Cook and Chapman all went out in 5:34 for the first mile and each was among the top nine runners overall at the one-mile mark.

Villanova will next compete on Saturday, October 13 in the Pre-NCAA Meet at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.